Professor Suzanne Ost

Professor

Research Overview

Suzanne's main research interests are: health care law and bioethics, particularly assisted dying (JME2025); breaches of the sexual boundaries between doctors and patients (MedLR2016); the impact of criminal law on bioethics and health care practice (Brazier/Ost, OUP2020, JME2018); unknowing victims of crime (BJC2023, IJPSM2024); the legal and societal responses to child abusive images (IRV2018); and the sexual grooming of children and child sexual exploitation. Her most recent book analyses exploitation (conceptually, ethically and legally) in the doctor-patient relationship. Her completed projects include a project on unknowing victims of child abusive images, funded by the British Academy.

Suzanne has advised the Jersey government (Assisted Dying Review Panel) and her co-authored report for the Panel can be found here. She was the expert adviser for Jersey's Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying and critical friend to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' Citizens Jury on Assisted Dying. Her blog on the value of citizens' juries for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics can be found here.

Suzanne was appointed as a Council Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in December 2025. She was the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Law Review 2011-2020 and a member of the Law sub-panel for REF2021. Suzanne is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.

Career Details

Professor of Law since 2012. Senior Lecturer in Law (September 2007-March 2012). Lecturer in Law at the University of Manchester (2004-2007), and Lecturer in Law at the University of Central Lancashire (2000-2003).

Professional Role

Academic Lead for the North West North Wales (NWNW) Cluster of the British Academy's Early Career Researcher Network.

Formerly Director of Research Enhancement and Associate Dean for Research for the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (2018-2024).

External Roles

Council Member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics

External Advisor to the Jersey Assisted Dying Review Panel, reviewing the Jersey draft law on assisted dying, 2025-2026

Member of the Law sub-panel under Panel C, REF2021

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College

Critical Friend for the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying, 2024

Expert Adviser for Jersey's Citizens' Jury on Assisted Dying, 2021

2011-2020: former Editor in Chief for the Medical Law Review journal

Output assessor for the Law sub-panel under Panel C, REF14

Peer Review Assessor for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, NHS Research for Patient Benefit Programme and the Wellcome Trust

Research Grants

I have been awarded research funding from the AHRC, the British Academy and the Socio-Legal Studies Association.

Current Teaching

2025-2026:

Law300 Health Care Law and Ethics

Law104x Criminal Law

PhD Supervision Interests

Professor Ost is interested in supervising research degrees on medical law and bioethics, legal and social issues surrounding child abusive images and sexual grooming, child sexual exploitation and other areas related to her research interests.